"If I Can't Love Her" from Disney's Beauty and the Beast | Shaq Taylor 2022 West End performance

Shaq Taylor (Hex, Girl from the North Country) has taken on the lead role of Beast for the touring and West End run of Beauty and the Beast, joining Courtney Stapleton in her critically lauded turn as Belle.

Continuing in their roles will be Gavin Lee (Mary Poppins) as Lumiere and Tom Senior ( Eugenius!) as Gaston, with Sam Bailey (Chicago) as Mrs Potts and Nigel Richards (The Phantom of the Opera) as Cogsworth.

Martin Ball (Les Misérables) takes the role of Maurice, Samantha Bingley (Martha In The Secret Garden) is Wardrobe, Emma Caffrey (Curtains) is Babette and Louis Stockil (Miss Saigon) plays Le Fou.

The full company is completed with Richard Astbury, Sarah Benbelaid, Jake Bishop, Pamela Blair, Liam Buckland, Jasmine Davis, Matthew Dawkins, Autumn Draper, Daisy Edwards, Alyn Hawke, George Hinson, Jennifer Louise Jones, Brontë Lavine, Thomas-Lee Kidd, David McIntosh, Aimee Moore, Sam Murphy, Ashley-Jordon Packer, Emily Squibb, Grace Swaby, India Thornton and Rhys West.

Telling the tale of a sage young woman trapped by a cursed prince, the production will run from Friday 24 June 2022, for a strictly limited season until Saturday 17 September.

Featuring classic numbers such as "Something There", "Be Our Guest", "Belle", "Gaston" and "Beauty and the Beast" as well as new tunes added for the stage production, the Disney classic is directed and choreographed by Matt West, with the creative team featuring scenic designer Stan Meyer, costume designer Ann Hould-Ward and lighting designer Natasha Katz.

New dance arrangements have been created by David Chase, while Michael Kosarin and Danny Troob are musical supervisor/vocal arranger and orchestrator.

Rick Sordelet is fight director, Lorenzo Pisoni is physical movement coordinator, Sam Scalamoni is associate director, Chandon Jones is the associate choreographer and Nick Winston is the associate UK director/choreographer. Casting is by Pippa Ailion and Natalie Gallacher.

Completing the design team are John Shivers as sound designer, Darryl Maloney as the video and projections designer, and David H Lawrence as hair designer. Jim Steinmeyer is the illusions designer.